Episode 000-The Podcast

Hello, Lemonaders! My name is Lauri Mackey and I created Lauri’s Lemonade Stand to help women over 40 either enhance who we already are or if needed, to start from scratch to re-create ourselves and figure out who we want to be when we grow up. To do this, we need inspiration from others who have gone before us or who are living that reality right now. Most of the positivity podcast is interview-based so that we can hear others stories of hope and empowerment. To hear from others who have hit rock bottom and found the only way to go was or is up. As Stephanie McKenzie stated in her podcast episode 017, we are here to help those who haven’t reached where we are yet and also look forward to those who have already been where we are now. Here is a good example of what I’m talking about:

During my very first interview, 001 Rebecca Rusch, who is a multi-world champion mountain biker, author, speaker and all around bad-ass that I admire discussed how more women were getting into mountain-biking, but that the the sport is mostly male-dominated. Basically, we ride with guys more than we do gals. We talked about how we can watch a guy take some technical section, make it look easy, but that we still may be reluctant or hesitant to try it ourselves. Then we get our gal friend, like Lindsey Voreis on episode 003 who is also an awesome mountain biker and teaches other women confidence throught this amazing sport take the same technical section and it gives us the courage and strength to try it ourselves. In other words, as women, we need each other!

We need each other to create courage, give each other strength, build each other up and create contagious energy to do and be better. To take our “sucking lemons” moments and turn them into sweet lemonade.

Some of the other podcasts, while still interview-based are just fun, like episode 012 where Irene Thomas teaches us how to Geocache or Jo Ellen Soesbee who is the Tool Box Tom Girl in episode 004 who will inspire you to pick up those tools and do it yourself before ever making a phone call to the handyman.

Another fun part of every episode are the Lemonade Moments I ask at the end of every interview to my guests. Because I am constantly putting them on the hot seat, I thought I should also have to answer these questions myself so here goes:

Question #1 – Name one activity you do every day without fail? Well, the obvious answer was brush and floss my teeth, but my official answer is reading my scriptures, writing in my journal and saying a prayer to do good that day. Question #2 – Favorite Guilty Pleasure Food? French Fries from Veggie Grill!! Not the kind you get at fast food joints, the thick, covered in fun seasoning kind of fries. I would say the runner up to that would be the banana chocolate peanut butter vegan soft-serve my dear hubby makes for me when I have a sweet tooth. Did I mention I was vegan? Question #3 – Biggest Pet Peeve? The buttons at crosswalks!! Seriously, do you ever see those people standing there hitting that button a thousand times until they get the light? It doesn’t matter if you push it once or a hundred times…the light is going to change at the same time. Somewhere along the line someone told someone else that the more times you push it the more people it thinks is standing there so it will change faster. Big lie! It doesn’t think at all, hello! It will change just as fast for the one as for the dozen. Yep…feel a little passionate about that one! Haha! Question #4 – Favorite Quote I’m loving right now. Anything worth doing is worth doing poorly until you learn to do it well by Zig Ziglar. Hence this podcast! Or writing a blog, or learning a new skill on a bike. You have to start somewhere…the most important thing to do is to start!

Question #5 and the last one – What’s the biggest thing I’ve accomplished since turning 40. Graduating high school for sure! It was seriously one of the hardest things I did as an adult! You can check out episode 013 to get the full scoop but let me just say that it’s way harder as an adult to graduate than as a teenager. Tell your teenagers to stay in school!!

What are some of the other things I’ve accomplished since turning 40? After graduating high school, becoming a certified Starchivore, earning a certificate in plant-based nutrition through eCornell University, becoming a Certified health coach through The Institute of Integrative Nutrition, establishing Lauri’s Lemonade Stand Blog/Podcast/Website/Facebook page, becoming an Inspirational Speaker with training from YSU and Lisa Nichols Motivating the Masses, earning my Young Women’s medallion through the Personal Progress program, racing mountain bikes and becoming a mountain bike coach to our local high school team. Seriously, ladies…if I can do it…anyone can!

What are my next goals? To write a book! I have been taking all sorts of courses and researching what it takes to write a book. How to publish traditionally or self-publish, what to write about that will make the most difference in helping other women accomplish their goals. Just to hold myself accountable, I’m setting a date to release a book by Christmas 2017. That gives me just over a year to get it written and sorted out. A noble goal and I can’t wait to share it with all of you!

Ladies, this positivity podcast for women was created out of love to offer support in your journey. Wherever you are, you are right where you are supposed to be. I’m betting that if you have 45 minutes per week to listen while you’re driving, working out, or just hanging at home you will feel the love and inspiration of these wonderful women. That you won’t feel so alone in your journey. That you will feel empowered to do and be whatever your little heart desires.

And for the best lemonade recipe ever, check out my website at laurislemonadestand.com. If you subscribe to my email list and I sure hope you do, you will also get “Eddy’s 60 Days of Sunshine” pdf for FREE to help create positive, lemonade moments in the life of someone you love who may be feeling down.

Looking forward to sharing this podcast journey with you and wishing you all the best in whatever you are pursuing right now. I would love to hear from you so please, pretty please chime in in the rate and review of this podcast and subscribe because iTunes will make sure it gets out there to more women of our tribe and don’t forget to hit “like” on Facebook! Love to you all, My Lemonaders in Training! Enjoy the show and thank you for listening!

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1) Enjoy the Moments My bike ride this morning took me through neighborhoods, long stretches of farmland where they were growing artichokes, bell peppers in yellow and red, celery, and acres of sod. It went past a naval station, a shooting range, hiking and camping areas, and miles of beach along the Pacific Ocean where people were walking their pets or out in the water surfin’ it up. Don’t forget to look up every once in awhile and enjoy your surroundings. We get so busy with life that we forget to look up and enjoy these little moments of beauty that surround us daily.

2) Share the Road This morning found me on a lonely 30-mile ride and while it was beautiful, it’s much more fun to bring a buddy. I enjoy riding with my husband or friends or my daughter. Due to different levels of fitness, I highly recommend a tandem. It evens up the odds in a hurry and it’s easier to visit. While tandems are certainly fun, you have to work “in tandem” or it’s literally a train wreck. Which foot to have on the pedal when you start, which foot you will put down first when you stop, shifting your weight carefully so you don’t weeble-wobble and fall right over. Share your life. It is much more fun when you have a buddy to share the road or to simply go “in tandem”.

3) Think Happy Thoughts Let’s face it, this life can be a cess pool of negativity. Here’s an example of that on my ride this morning…it was 46 degrees and I hate the cold. My Garmin wouldn’t work so I wasn’t able to see how far I went, how many calories I had burned, what time it was, and how my heart rate was doing. There was a horrible head-wind that made me work much harder on the way home. It took ten minutes longer than my ride out. My fingers were freezing and at one point I couldn’t feel my toes. Some of the drivers definitely are NOT observing the 3-foot rule and made me nervous coming so close. And some parts of the beach ride just smell plain fishy…and I don’t like fish! Why did I do this by myself? I should have just stayed home. Here’s what actually happened…I was cold for awhile, but reminded myself of how blazing hot it had been this summer and was glad for the change in season that finally appeared. My Garmin didn’t work so I decided to just enjoy the ride and not worry about my heart rate or how long it would take me to finish. I was cold during spots, but enjoyed the morning sunshine as it warmed me up to get through the next cold spell. The headwinds are a blessing in disguise as while I’m slower, they make me stronger. I was grateful for good health that allowed me the opportunity to ride my bike and for the quiet time it provided me to think of all these analogies!

4) Embrace Your Own Journey While there were not a lot of other cyclists out as early as I was this morning, I passed a few. And then one passed me! My initial reaction is always, “Man, I’m slow” or “Speed up! Quick! Don’t let this guy pass you!” Why? Why do we compare ourselves to others so often? I’m enjoying my Garmin-Free bike ride over here moving like molasses through this headwind…I don’t need to compare myself to the rest of the world. Embrace your own journey in this life. There is no one else like you, period. So why would you want to take someone else’s journey? This is yours…own it.

5) Always Another Hill My tooshie is sore after all the hills. I admit it. But there is always another hill. Those hills build character, strength, resolve, and tighten my rear end. That’s a huge benefit! I ride with a group of guys on Thursday afternoons and one hill in particular is called “Power Line”. It is insanely steep and it takes just plain power and grit to climb. A few weeks ago, one of the guys told me he’d never made it up so I climbed with him and became the best little cheerleader you could imagine (without pompoms of course). He made it! And you know what? Last week we went to that same hill and he did it again and it wasn’t as hard as the first time. Those hills make you stronger and give you the confidence to tackle it again. In life there is always another hill. I enjoy the downhill and the coasting, but I know that hills are just a part of my life. Just as in my bike riding (whether mountain or road), they are building muscles, creating experiences, and giving me confidence to tackle even bigger hills in the future.

This is the last post of my Goal Post Series for January.I’ve liked having a theme forthe month.Do you?If so, let me know in the comments so I can plan more themed parties for us!

The last piece of the puzzle is Accountability. This is a new one for me this year, but I have so many goals that I wanted to report to someone so my goals wouldn’t get lost in the melee of my big, beautiful life. At the end of my list of Promises for 2017 I added one more new category: Giddy-Up Goal Celebrations.

I wanted to be able to celebrate all of my small wins and be encouraged in my journey. I ended up with 4 accountabilities (of course, you can have as many or as little as you like!). I have a Podcast Accountability group with two other awesome women that keep me on track with my podcasting goals. We meet via Skype every Tuesday. I have a Book-Writing Accountability team member who we simply email each other every Wednesday on our progress and encourage each other. I have a Speech accountability that I do every Thursday with guess who? Myself! I was challenged by one of my podcast guests, Whitney Johnson to do 10 FREE Speeches during 2017 and I am sending pitches out to whomever will listen to get my message out there. And last, but definitely not least, I “hired” my best friend, Lizzie to check in with me monthly and then quarterly on my entire goal list.

And guess what? She is making me a gold star chart! How cool is that? She is most definitely a mom and wanted to make some sort of chart to show my progress and we giggled about gold stars, but then thought…why the heck not? It will be fun and you can bet I’ll be fighting for each of those earned gold stars!!

Goals are great. Goals written down are in a much higher percentile to actually happen and get accomplished. Goals that you have to report back to someone?? Over 90%, baby! I’m adding this element to rock my Promises for 2017!

And there you have it…4 blog posts on Dreaming Big, Reflection, Bite-Size Chunks, and Accountability. Now get out there and get ‘er done! I believe in you!

Wrenches in the Trenches are not your average, every day kind of hiccups in life. It’s when you’re on a streak of them that they become wrenches in the trenches. The last couple weeks of mine have been definite wrenches in the trenches and it’s not ready to stop just yet. I’m going to share some of this with you only as example, not to be hugely negative. (I promise to end on a positive note!)

My Wrenches This Last Week

My husband and I own a business and while I’ve stepped mostly away to build up Lauri’s Lemonade Stand, I’m still pretty involved. Nothing at that business happens at a convenient time. For example, let’s have our production manager quit without notice and then all of a sudden all of our clients need their orders yesterday. Then two days later your part-timer calls in sick and the day after that your other one does as well. Because this business pays ALL of our bills right now, that means that not only do my husband and I drop everything to keep it going, but my daughter as well. Talk about a family business! And it hasn’t stopped.

My daughter has finished high school, finished a vocational school and only has two mock state board finals to complete before graduating and then taking the state boards on April 3rd. She called the school admin and set up two dates, but that admin didn’t tell the other admin and her dates got taken. Even though we had set up everything with everyone to be there so now we are scrambling to get her a new model (thermolysis – permanent hair removal – have to bring your own model) on the only two dates they have left and one is the day before state boards meaning that if she doesn’t pass, can’t take state boards.

And then there’s the rain. I love rain! But not when it has the possibility of bringing flash floods to recent burn areas or cancels our mountain bike race for the weekend for our local high school mountain bike team and we are scrambling for practices or possible spin classes. That also means canceling hotels, changing plans, re-booking hotels for the next race, etc. I got most of my money back, but others refused a refund.

Last one…then there’s my dumb thyroid and the needle biopsy that hurt like the dickens and bruised my neck only to have the results come back inconclusive and being sent out for genetic testing that will take weeks to get those results. Not freaking out, but definitely a wrench psychologically to have to wait.

Combatting the Wrenches

When life throws more than little hiccups your direction and there seems to be a steady stream, those are your wrenches in the trenches moments. Here’s what I do to combat feeling despair during these crazy life wrenches:

I do the best I can. I make a list and that list is filled with more stuff than I could ever accomplish in a day and I know it. I then write the numbers 1-3 of the things that are the most important and I start there. If I finish those three, I make another priority of the next 3. And then I let it go. Oh, I’ll get stressed, but I try to do my best and let the rest go.

I find at least one thing to be grateful for daily. There is something in every day and I write mine in a 5-year journal I keep at my bedside every night. Focusing on something good, writing down, and then I get bonus points if I share it with my hubby cause talking about that good thing makes me happy.

Look for the silver lining or the lesson learned. I truly believe that things happen for a reason. While our business is still struggling to get caught up, we are grateful to have hired a wonderful new production manager and am embracing the fact that we have lots of work to do which brings us monetary blessings like paying for our mortgage and eating. Kinda important things, right? My daughter was able to find a model for tomorrow and I firmly believe there’s a reason why her schedule got re-arranged. Maybe in finding the new model she’ll meet someone new. Maybe it will be good to do a mock final the day before her state boards so it will be fresh in her memory. I can’t always immediately see the blessing, but I’m on the look out for it! And the rain with the races? Turns out I only lost $6.84 cents for my hotel. I won’t be attending the re-scheduled race because my oldest daughter and my two grandbabies are coming for a visit and that fact alone will save me 6 hours of driving. That’s a blessing! I’m praying that we will not have flash floods, but I am grateful for the much-needed rain in California.

Last, but certainly not least. If all else fails, give up. Oh, I don’t mean permanently, but sometimes you need to just set everything aside, grab your favorite food and chick flick and zone out. Those problems aren’t going anywhere. Tell them all to take a time-out, re-group yourself and come at it fresh tomorrow.

Wrenches in the Trenches are inevitable, but they do pass. If you’re in one now, I feel ya. The struggle is real. Take heart, this too shall pass.

Please leave your comments below on this article. I would love to hear from you!